Homepage of Carsten Ullrich

General Information

Research Interests

Throughout my career, I have been investigating how new technology and research results can be of benefit for the average user. Over the years I worked with cutting edge technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Semantic Web, Web 2.0, mobile applications) and investigated their potential to be employed in daily life, by non-experts. In 2012, I oversaw and directed the transformation of a prototypical research result of our lab into a full-grown commercial product, VastCast, which is now used by a number of conferences and organizations. Also, over the years while serving as a group leader, student supervisor and teacher, I have learned a lot about how to transform young researchers and students into creative, independent individuals. I have managed several international research projects, involving researchers from Europe and China.

Projects

At the EdTec Lab, I am in charge of several projects that investigate the potential
of educational technology at the workplace, with a focus on workplace-integrated learning
on the shop floor. In the project APPsist we developed an
architecture for assistance and knowledge services for smartproduction. In the project
DigiLernPro we are working on semi-automatically-generated
digital learning scenarios for supporting employees in the industrial production.

At Shanghai Jiao Tong University, I was in charge of several
international projects such as
the ROLE project, which
investigates personal learning environments, CEDEM (Cross-Cultural
Educational Data-Mining in Large-Scale Multimedia Learning), and
others. I also serve on advisory boards of Shanghainese start-ups focusing on education.

From 2012 to 2014, I oversaw the university spin-off project Acclamate
and its product VastCast, the easy way to have the world watching and
learning from your conferences and lectures. As Acclamate's director,
I directed the transformation of a prototypical research
result of our lab into a full-grown commercial product, VastCast,
which is now used by a number of conferences and organizations.

In my PhD thesis I developed a
course generation framework that enables the formalization and application
of complex and realistic pedagogical knowledge. Compared to previous
course generation, this approach generates structured courses that are
adapted to a variety of different learning goals and to the learners'
competencies. This work is based on techniques from various fields,
such as AI planning, user modeling, knowledge representation (Semantic
Web), and of course pedagogical expertise.

This work was done in
the ActiveMath group within
the scope of the FP7
project LeActiveMath. In the
final review of the project, the reviewers commented that my course
generator "clearly represents an advancement of the-state-of-the-art
in the fields of computer-aided learning".

In my diploma thesis, I worked on problem solving by analogy. I added
a component for knowledge-based proof planning by analogy in the
mathematical support
system Omega. My
thesis is available online (in German).

Interests others than Computer Science

My interests are not restricted to computer science. I'm in love with
my gorgeous
wife,
love to watch gruesome movies, like to read
all kinds of books, including philosophy (still struggling to understand Rudolf Steiner and Sri Aurobindo).

Being interested in China, I'm trying to learn Chinese and understand this
fascinating country and its people. Since 2012, I'm practicing Tai Chi, now having returned to Berlin
I am working as an assistant teacher in my wife's Tai Chi school in Berlin, Friedenau.